Triumph Thruxton RS | The Ultimate PERFORMANCE Retro Classic??

Welcome along guys, well look at this beauty. This is the 2020 Thruxton. Not just any Thruxton, this one is the RS version meaning uprated engine, uprated braking, uprated bits and bobs left, right and centre. This has been lent to me courtesy of Destination Triumph. This is their demo bike, so I've had this for about a week. I've been loving this thing so I can't wait to get into it and tell you all about this bike. But first of all, roll the intro. So this bike, this bike, I've been really enjoying this. I wouldn't have really thought this was my cup of tea. I do love a retro bike but because I'm a bit of a speed freak, shall we say, I like a bit of performance. So I was always thought, you know, I'm not sure I could just put up with having a retro machine because I'd miss the sportiness of it. You know, they're great for when you want to just bimble around but if you want to get a bit sporty, you want to have a bit of fun, then they tend to be lacking a little bit. Well, that was until I tried the Thruxton RS. Oh yeah, see what I mean? She's not shy, this thing. This is the 1200cc single overhead cam, eight valve, I think it's eight valve, parallel twin motor. This is the same motor which was in now the Speed Twin, you know, it was in the original Thruxton when it came out in 2016. But this, it's not unchanged. For the RS version, they have done some tweaking, they have done some modding. The basic idea behind this bike is make it more powerful and make it lighter and that's really worked. This engine is putting out an extra five brake horsepower which puts it, I think, 103 brake horsepower at the crank. It makes the same amount of torque, 112 newton meters, which is a lot of torque. But for the RS version, that has been moved down the rev range by 700 rpms. So that torque is now available lower down the rev range. The whole engine mass has been reduced, try and say 20% less inertia from the engine by lightened balancing shaft, lightened, what is this guy doing, lightened flywheel. You know, the whole of that, the whole of that engine mass has been, the weight has been reduced to make the whole thing spin up faster. Now I've ridden the Speed Twin before, I'll put a link to the video up there, and I love the Speed Twin. What I love about this motor is just the absolute pull it has from right down the bottom of the rev range. This motor is so tractable. Let me give you a demonstration. Third gear, 2,000 revs, it's just got it. It's got so much pull, that's 60 miles an hour almost. You know, it's so tractable, it makes it so easy just to overtake the traffic. So you can bimble, you know, you don't have to work the gearbox too much, it's just a lovely thing for just poodling around on. But this RS version, this is a proper goer. Oh yeah, bags of torque, oh she's, she's got some go, she's absolutely got some go. It's got no quickshifter or blipper, I mean I think that is a good thing. I think that just adds to the authentic feel, banging it up and down the box, which is actually quite clunky, but I think they've done that for a reason. You know, this is a classic bike, you get that feeling that you're on a proper 60s, 70s, TT winning Thruxton. Now this bike does have a few accessories. This has got the cowl. I'm not sure I like this bike without the cowl, but with this calf racer cowl on it, you get the wind protection and you get like proper calf racer looks. And I absolutely love the look of this thing. We'll do a full walk around in a minute, because there's so many nice details to point out on this bike. But it's a beautiful thing, the finish of it again is amazing. I mean you can see the polished top yoke stands out straight away. One thing to mention with the cowl is it comes with dropped clip-ons. So on this version, there is quite a bit of weight on your wrist. There's proper sports bike weight on your wrist. This isn't that comfortable. You're sort of taking up the proper sports bike tuck on this. I've been told the standard height clip-ons do still fit with the cowl. I can't confirm that, that's what someone mentioned on Instagram, that you can run the cowl with the standard height clip-ons. So then you'd be up sort of here, which would make all the difference to the comfort. But there's quite a lot of weight on your wrist, but that does make it feel extremely racy. Sound of it, it's a little bit quiet. It's obviously Euro 5, so it's not massively loud. Morning. Morning. They absolutely love it. Excuse me. Everyone's in the road, what is going on? Another thing you notice while riding it, the position, it is so thin. It is like riding a push bike. My legs, my knees are literally eight inches apart. It's so small. Yeah, you have sort of eight inches between your legs. Some people are lucky enough to have that. But you get eight inches between your legs on this bike. The fuel tank, this is one of the slight disadvantages of this bike, the fuel tank is only 14 and a half litres. And I think that's why, to give it that small little calf racer look, that thin looking bike for that classic style. But the tank capacity has been compromised, 14 and a half litres. And you can only get, well it's saying, I've just filled it up, you get 120 mile range. That's not a great deal. And that's at best, I would say. I've seen just over 100 with it if ridden spiritedly. Torque! The brakes are Brembo M50s now. Absolutely amazing. They're a little bit, they've got the power. They don't have quite the initial bite of like the Speed or Street Triple brakes. You need to put a little bit of pressure on them, but they've got the power there. You know, this has got a Brembo master cylinder, but it doesn't have the one which is adjustable for, you know, lever capacity like the Street Triple does, like the RS version. It's just a standard Brembo lever. It's okay. It's a shame, you know, if they just gave it the same setup as the Street Triple RS, you'd get all that extra feel from the brakes, but they work. They've got loads of power, but just lacking a bit of initial feel when you pull the lever. Suspension on this is the same as the R model. So it's got the Ohlins, twin Ohlins rear shocks, fully adjustable, preload, compression dampening, rebound dampening. They're high spec units. It's got the Showa big piston forks at the front, which is, you know, this is proper modern suspension. This thing handles beautifully. They have this setup beautifully. It's plush. You're not getting bounced around. You know, these are bumpy roads, but you can still really hustle it in the twisties. We'll come on to some twisties in a minute. And this is the thing I love about this bike. It just absolutely handles. Oh, slow it down, chopsy. That torque is addictive. The front comes up in first gear on the power when you give it a handful. Oh, it's a little bit damp. That's a bit of a shame. A bit of a shame. There is so, it's so stable around the corners. It's so stable. You get your line set up and it'll just, you know, it gives you everything you need really around the twisties. All the feedback you need, all the stability you need, all of the confidence that you need to really have some fun. As well as working their magic on the engine, Triumph have also tried to reduce weight on this bike. So this is, I think, five kilos lighter than the R version, than last year's R version. They've done that by using mag covers on the engine. So it's got magnesium rocker cover. It's also got a lithium battery as well to save those five kilos. And there's been other little bits of shaving been done elsewhere on the bike. So it's five kilos lighter. So the bike comes in dry, I think 193 kilos. So it is a little bit heavier than its other RS brothers. Oh, she's a puller. You can actually reach ridiculous speeds rather quickly on this. Quite often you end up looking down at the speedo and you're like, what? How could I be going that fast? It's deceptively fast, this thing. I can't get out of the seat too much because I've got the rear camera right where my foot needs to go. So I can't jump about out the seat too much, but in the twisties, it's a lovely, lovely thing. It's very rewarding. The suspension's good. It rides over the bumps, but it also gives you a lot of feedback. You can feel what the tarmac's doing beneath you and the front end is very nice. It just drops in and turns in. It's a lovely, lovely setup. I think they've got it absolutely perfect. The mixture of bump management, how it rides the bumps versus the handling and the stiffness of the bike, I think they've got that absolutely balanced perfectly. And I've not played with any adjusters. I'm 6'2", I'm 18 and a half stone, and even in my weight and size, I find it perfectly suspended. All right, we're on a nice 60 limit road here, so there's nothing behind me. So let's do a little 0-60 test on it just to show you what I'm talking about with this power. So, flat open, wheels up, into second, wheels trying to come up. Whoa, we're way past 60. We're way past 60 already. It's quick, more than quick enough. Skinny tag, lay it in a little bit, power it out. That motor really does, it's free revving. You know, I haven't even really hit the red line too much. A couple of times I touched the red line back there because it's so free revving with that 20% less inertia that you do just tend to rev it round. Oh, they've worked, I tell you, Triumph on an absolute roll at the moment, absolute roll. A little high speed corner here, set her up. Oh, could have gone a lot faster. So stable at speed. So you get my point, yeah? This thing isn't just about looking great, it does look great, but this has also got the performance, it's got the credentials to back up the looks. That is beautiful. 80. Oh, it's quick. Oh, a nice little left-hander here. Hang off it. Oh, yeah. You try that on the Speed Twin. Let's stop here at the Whitehorse and do a little walk around for you. Oh, they're obviously bike fans. Nice little monster. So there she is. I apologise for any wind noise in advance. It's been blowing an absolute hoolie. So if there's a little bit of wind noise on this, I do apologise. But there she is. As I say, this one has the cowl. So this one has the cowl. I think the cowl is about £750 for the cowl. And I don't know if that includes the clip-ons as well, these lower clip-ons, but I think the cowl's a must. I think if you're going for this style of bike, I think the cowl has to go on it. It looks great with the cowl. This one has also got the rear mudguard delete. So normally it has a mudguard piece that comes out here and there's some taillights on the end. This has got all that delete, which is another extra, but it makes the rear of the bike look absolutely fantastic. Still needs a tail tidy to sort of move that in a little bit, but from the back, it looks proper. So you've got the lovely taillight on this one, LED, and this has also got the optional LED indicators as well. Triumph accessory indicators, which are really nice. Full Ohlins rear suspension, top adjusters. I don't know if that's probably compression adjustment, and then you've got rebound adjustment at the bottom, and then obviously preload adjustment on here. I mean, these are right up. I could put a bit more preload in these actually, and it might even handle better. The headlight has DRLs in it, so it's got a modern twist to the headlight, and the little Triumph logo in the middle. The details I love is the polished top yoke. I mean, that's the first thing that stands out when you look at the bike. The top yoke is beautiful, and then the dials with the matching polished sort of bezel around the outside. I love analog clocks, and these really work well on this bike. Beautiful, beautiful. You've got the little Monza type fuel cap. What I do like, some people complain that this feels a bit cheap. I think it's fine, and what I do like is you can leave it unlocked, so if you don't want to, you don't have to mess about with a key. I mean, if you keep your bike locked in a garage, you don't have to keep locking the petrol tank, so you can just fill it without having to unlock the petrol tank, which I like. The finish of the paint on the Triumph is amazing. I know a lot of people say, oh, they're made in Thailand, the quality is rubbish. If the paint quality is anything to go by, it's incredible. I mean, this is like an aluminium sticker, which has been lacquered under the paint, but the black, there's no orange peel. It's so glossy. Honestly, the paint finish is absolutely beautiful on these. The finish of the whole bike is fantastic. You know, there's nothing on it where you think, oh, that looks a bit cheap and nasty. There's nothing on it like that. Even the powder coating finish on the frame is beautiful. You know, the welds on the frame are all good. Another thing I really like is the wheels are anodized, so it's like a black, shiny, anodized wheel rim. So obviously, aluminium rims, anodized, shiny black, they look gorgeous. Chain guard is metal. Now that could be an optional extra, but this one has a metal powder coated chain guard. You know, it's just, it's just quality. Honestly, it is a quality thing. Another thing I really like is the actual cat is underneath the bike. So for the exhaust, the cat is underneath, but it looks like you've just got two pipes, like straight through pipes with no cat or anything. It's all hidden underneath. It's very clever the way they've designed that to hide the catalytic converter and stuff. If only other manufacturers would take that level of attention and care as to where to place the, you know, of the exhaust system design, bikes would look a whole lot better. Brembo M50s, as I say, very nice. It's got a USB charger under the seat. Hang on, let me crack this, let's take the seat off and I'll show you under the seat, see if we've got any storage under there. Seat off. So it doesn't seem to be much storage under here. Ah, that's the USB charger. So you've got a USB charger under here, but not a lot of, not a lot of room elsewhere. If you look under the seat, under the seat, you know, the proper under the seat, there's a little compartment here, which I think is probably for the toolkit, but it's quite big. So you could probably store some things under the seat in there. I guess you could put your phone on, put your phone in there, plug it into the charger under the seat, but not a massive amount of storage, but there never is these days. Let's hit it. It really, it almost pulls your arms off. It's got so much grunt. I mean, it's a calf racer, which really suits me because I love racing between calves on a Sunday morning. So how much is one of these going to cost you? I mean, how's the sales pitch going? Interested? I mean, this is sounding like a sales pitch, this video, because if I get a bike I like, I get completely caught up in it. And this is one of those bikes. But how much is it going to cost you? This will set you back £13,000 for the basic model. Now the basic model is this black. They also do a really nice matte black with silver and red, which looks fantastic. But I think that's another £450. The cowl on this is, as I mentioned, is £750. I think I priced up this bike and it's about £14,000 by the time you put on like the fender delete, the cowl, the indicators, you know, the other bits and bobs. It's about £14,000. So it is starting to get a little bit pricey. But you don't necessarily have to buy all those bits when you initially buy the bike. You can add those over time. I mean, if it wasn't for the slightly limited fuel range, you know, I put 110, 120 miles, you know, you could go on and use this as a proper touring machine. If it was mine, I'd probably get the slightly higher clip-ons. So you're not quite, because it is quite aggressive, the position is quite aggressive. So I'd probably go for the slightly higher clip-ons and it'll be a fantastic all-round machine with potential to do Sunday morning blasts, midweek afternoon cruises, with the occasional, perhaps, track day thrown in. So I mean, this could be your only motorcycle. A lot of these classics, you know, you have a classic bike and then you have something else, because the classics are only really good for poodling around in the afternoon. You want to get a bit of a lick on and they are a little bit limited. So I think the Thruxton RS, oh, it's a beauty and it could be your only machine. It's a similar sort of bike to the Moto Guzzi V7 Racer, which I've ridden. I've got a video of that on my Moto Guzzi tour, my Italy tour. Has that gone up yet? I think that's gone. I think I've got another one to do, which has a lot more of the Racer in it. But the Racer is a similar type of bike, but the Racer has zero ground clearance. You literally cannot go more than 30 degrees lean and then the exhausts are touching down. This, I mean, I've not even come close to touching it down. On the road, you do not need any more. On track, yeah, you're probably going to start finding the limits of the handling, but you won't on the road. So there we go, guys, the Thruxton RS. A bike I was totally taken by surprise at how good this was. I was just expecting another modern classic, you know, just looking a bit different, but basically the same. Not at all. This thing has real character. You know, it's a real bike, this. It's a real weapon. And yeah, I absolutely love it. If you want to ride this, this is Destination Triumph's demo. I'll put contact details below. Go on their website, have a look. But I've been so impressed with this. And if I was to buy a classic styled bike, it would be this one. Without a doubt, it would be this one. It's bloody beautiful. Thanks for watching, guys. As always, take care, ride safe, and I will see you on the next one. See you later. Lifted today.